Complex, Multifaceted, Fragile

The Preppy Pipeline

The white sideline boundaries at the University of Phoenix Stadium have been carefully painted, ready for all the fanfare of Super Bowl XLIX. In addition to the action on the field, the game will have all of its usual trimmings: beer commercials, rowdy fans, voluble commentators, and an NFL staple: cheerleaders. In two-piece uniforms performing racy dance routines, the Sea Gals and Patriots cheerleaders who will line the field are proving to be a paradox.

On February 15, 2014, Ray Rice, the star running back for the Baltimore Ravens, punched his fiancee Janay Palmer in the face. She was knocked cold, either by the punch or when her head hit the handrail of an Atlantic City hotel elevator, a moment immortalized by the small security camera in the corner.

Like many Americans, Renee Miller plays fantasy football.
Unlike many Americans, Renee Miller is a neuroscientist.
This has helped her develop a unique view of fantasy football; she has studied the effect of cognitive bias on the game, and writes regularly for fantasy football websites advising players to eliminate their biases and personal attachments from the fantasy football decision-making process, one Miller says is best based solely on cold statistics rather than the imperfect gut or the fallible heart.

The Eastside Lounge, part of the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel, is hosting a party to watch the Super Bowl. For $150, there will be an all-you-can-eat and drink menu. There will, however, be one thing missing from the party.

On Friday before the Super Bowl, hundreds of reporters assembled in Phoenix for Roger Goodell’s annual State of the League press conference. Once again the orchestrated event — this year humility was the predominant message — served as little more than a public relations exercise for an organization that, facing criticism for its handling of a litany of controversies over recent years, has increasingly sought to control the media agenda.

Detailed studies and statistics couldn’t do it. Expert medical testimony was ignored. Not even player suicides could shake the National Football League out of a denial reminiscent of the tobacco industry’s ‘smoking doesn’t cause cancer’ campaign.
But after years of dismissing the link between repeated concussions and long-term brain injury, the multi-billion dollar league may soon be forced to pay for its role in the suffering of many of its retired players.

Crean was in the second year of his contract at Indiana. His base salary for the 2009-10 season was $2,080,000; Ostrom, in her 35th year teaching at Indiana, made $167,018. Now in his sixth season, Crean has a 101-98 overall record with the Hoosiers. According to his contract, a copy of which was obtained through an open records request to Indiana University’s Office of General Counsel, Crean makes $600,000 in base salary.

Calipari and Kentucky were brought together at last. His new contract, according to university documents, included a country club membership, two new cars, event tickets, and $31.65 million (this sum does not include performance based bonuses) over the course of eight years. Calipari also signed a two year extension to the contract that keeps him in Kentucky until 2019 with similar incentives.

When Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on January 3rd, 2007, hundreds of strangers, most of them adorned in crimson, were waiting outside the small airport to greet him. They cheered wildly when his plane touched down and then formed a throng, multiple layers deep, surrounding him as he disembarked. They were there to welcome him, praise him, touch him; anything to be close to the man who had come to save their beloved, and recently struggling, University of Alabama football program.